Thanks for being here. You’re a true treasure.

There is no substance known to man that will get the smell of cat pee, never mind the stains, out of a suede jacket. Trust me.

He then walked calmly off toward the kitchen and his water bowl, looking back over his shoulder once as if to say, “Oh, no, bitch, I’m not done. I’m just reloading.”

He died 16 years later of old age, but he was incredibly fortunate he didn’t die of blunt-force trauma right then and there.

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LOL.

BTW. The “blanket over the carrier” idea falls pretty flat with my oldest. Voyager is past 20 these days, and his kidneys are going sour, albeit slowly. But there’s nothing whatsoever wrong with his brain. He doesn’t fool worth a damn. I figure he has a kitty IQ of about 200 or so. And I’m going to miss him like hell when he finally goes; in more than 30 years, I’ve never lived with a cat who was more “civilized” in a “living with humans” way.

And in more than 30 years, I have yet to see a cat who enjoys car rides. Boudicca, who is one of those “dishrag cats” (with me, she is a H. P. Lovecraft horror story with vets, and rules other cats with an iron fist) has been known to lose bladder control during car trips. At least, if a vet’s office is on the other side.

Widget used to barf 15 minutes into each and every car trip. Every. Single. Time. I got into the habit of preplanning and withdrew his food 12 hours prior. Believe me, this didn’t hurt him; when the vet in Mississippi saw him, he said “this is the fattest cat I have ever seen”.

Have you ever driven 1100 miles next to four cats? You in the driver’s seat, them in carriers locked into the passenger’s seat with seat belt and shoulder harness? Right next to your ears?

Thank all the gods and goddesses, they did NOT crap in their carriers. But I made 6 moves of more than 1000 miles each this way.

Yeah, I love the little guys. Go figure.

Another thing. As an earlier commenter noted, cats do need company, and if you’re away half the day, that isn’t going to be you during that time.

Hence, I always like to keep at least two.

I did have one who made a habit of crapping on the floor. Turned out it was surprisingly easy to break him of this.

I waited until he had a “favorite” spot, then covered it up with about 60 square feet of cardboard! And right smack in the middle of the cardboard, I plonked a catbox full of 20 pounds of fresh litter!

It took him about a month to get the idea firmly fixed in his mind. But he started to understand right away.

It’s been the better part of a year now since I put my Super Secret Fiendish Master Plan into operation, and he’s been perfect past that first month. I never said a word to him. Just made his “favorite” spot inconvenient to use in the usual way, and simultaneously stuck 20 pounds of “proper” litter right in the middle.

Of course, Bou may have shown him, by example. Outside of car trips, she’s always been pretty fanatical about going in the “right” spots.

My cat is walking all over me and my key board because he knows it is past my cat-imposed bedtime.

Good night all.

Those sound files just caused quite a bit of excitement in my household. All pooties went to the mattresses.

Here I have a Siamese sitting up on top of the scanner looking around with a half-worried, half scared expression, my large black shorthair gazing this way with very wide eyes, and the Angora mix just stomped over, fluffed up, and ready to take on that cat in the computer.